Page 67 - The Lord's Vengeance Of His Temple2018-05

THE LORD HAS OPENED HIS ARMOURY

Russia conducts

biggest test of
its nuclear triad
since end of the

Cold War

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From J. Michael Cole, the Diplomat: With the U.S. and Russia deadlocked over a plan by NATO to
deploy a European missile defense system, Moscow showed the world what it meant by “technical
response” last week by holding what has been described as the most comprehensive test of its strate-
gic nuclear arsenal since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

According to Russian media, President Vladi-
mir Putin, whom critics have accused of over-
playing the nuclear threat from the West to boost
his political fortunes domestically, oversaw the
entire series of tests, which were conducted
mostly on Oct. 19. All three components of
Moscow’s nuclear “triad” — strategic
bombers, land and sea-launched long-
range nuclear missiles — as well as commu-
nications and command-and-control systems
featuring “new algorithms,” were tested.

The tests included the launch of an RS-12M To-
pol Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)

President Putin looking on as ICBM is launched from Plesetsk in northern Russia — the world’s
first operational ICBM base, built in the 1950s —

and an R-29R from a submerged submarine operating in the Sea of Okhotsk. Both missiles traveled

a distance of more than 6,000km before hitting their targets. Meanwhile, two long-range bombers, a
Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear” and a Tu-160 “Blackjack,” each fired two nuclear-capable cruise missiles at a

test range in Komi, northwestern Russia. All the missiles involved were fitted with dummy war-

heads.

In a statement, the Kremlin said the strategic nuclear forces exercise was “conducted on such
a scale for the first time in the modern history of Russia.”

According to Russian media reports in January, the Russian military is scheduled to conduct 11
ICBM trials in 2012,. ….“with a view to piercing missile defense systems.” Among the new
missiles tested is the road-mobile multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle-ed, or MIRVed,
Yars RS-24 ICBM, which entered service in summer 2011. Russia also successfully tested a new me-
dium-weight ICBM in May that is reportedly capable of defeating anti-missile defense sys-
tems, which Moscow said was directly aimed at the NATO-led missile defense initiative.

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